Owner of TikTok sacked intern for allegedly sabotaging a project on artificial intelligence.
ByteDance stated that the person was dismissed in August for “maliciously interfering” with the training artificial intelligence models (AI) used in a project.
ByteDance is one of the most important social media companies in the world thanks to TikTok as well as its Chinese counterpart Douyin. Both apps rank on the list of most popular mobile applications, like other major players in the tech industry, has embraced generative AI. In the race to create a Chinese competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, its Doubao chatbot beat Baidu’s Ernie earlier this year.
ByteDance also has wireless earbuds integrated with Doubao that allow users to interact directly with the chatbot without using a phone. After rumours spread widely over the weekend on Chinese social media, the company confirmed the dismissal of the intern.
According to a translation, ByteDance posted a statement on its news aggregator, Toutiao. The statement stated that an intern from the Commercial Technology team was dismissed due to serious disciplinary infractions. The company said that neither its official commercial products nor its large-language models (the underlying technology of generative AI) had been affected.
The company stated that social media reports and rumours were exaggerated, especially in regards to the size of the disruption. ByteDance stated that rumours claimed that up to 8,000 graphical processor units (the chips used to train AI) were affected and that the losses were in tens or millions of dollars.
ByteDance stated that it has informed the interns’ university and industry associations of their conduct.
The report comes as tech companies across the globe are being questioned about the safety of AI models and the impact of social media.
ByteDance is also under close scrutiny in the US where it is battling against a federal ban. The company has until the 19th of January to either sell its TikTok stake to an approved buyer, or shut it down. ByteDance disputes the US government’s claim that TikTok poses a threat to national security.
We reached out to ByteDance, TikTok and other companies for comments.
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